I keep hearing vegging and flowering on the forums but have no solid idea what they are. Also when i was looking to buy seeds i saw that many plants have longer or shorter times for flowering, how does this affect them and their yeilds. Furthermore how can i know what stages my plants will be at when im growing outdoors?
marijuana plants normally go through a few different stages of growth. I consider them germinating/seedling until they have their first few sets of leaves. then they're in vegetative growth which just means they are trying to grow as big as possible as fast as possible to support the (hopefully) large flowers they will produce later. then they flower -- produce buds. if the female are pollenated then it also grows seeds in the buds. then the plant loses vigor and dies. those are the stages that are important to me as a grower at least. at different stages of the plants life it has different needs, so it is good to recognize the stages so you can provide what it needs and it will produce lots of high quality buds (hopefully) If you're growing outdoors you want to know approximately when your plants will flower so you can plan your harvest, etc. Many think it is desirable to have early finishing plants because they hope to harvest before the time of the year when cops start looking for crops. also, green marijuana tends to stand out against the brown foliage of other plants that die earlier in the fall, so harvesting while other plants are still green is sometimes preferable. finally, some strains of marijuana are used to more tropical reigions which have much longer growing seasons and others are better for reigions further away from the equator. a strain from mexico might want a very long flowering season because it has a long time to grow and flower there. move that strain to canada and you might have problems though. the plant may not finish flowering before the first frost. if you read around this forum you'll find other ideas about when to veg and harvest that are interesting. for instance, if you can grow indoors in the winter you can put your plants out in the early spring when days are still short to flower. it just takes reading and asking questions. you need to do the reading part first. stages of growth are described left and right here, with pictures, so just look around for a bit and learn from what's already been posted since there is so much in the answer to this question that nobody will probably want to repeat if it's already in print here in a different thread.
sometimes the online forum format isn't the easiest to search, hope i gave you some more info that helps your ongoing research if i've searched and can't find answers i go ahead and ask. i just wear my flame retardant underwear when i do
I think too much time is wasted bashing newbies for asking newbie questions. It's quite possible for someone to come to the forums, read all the stickies, be overwhelmed by all the knowledge, and still need to ask a stupid newbie question. It's much easier, much more welcoming, and much more polite to just answer it rather than beat up on the guy for being a noob. A lot of times someone will know the answer, but just need the reassurance of having someone more experienced confirm it. Healthy forums with a lot of traffic encourage these people, they don't bash them. The jerks are the ones who show up and want their hand held through the process without making the effort to learn on their own first.
I could see how all the materials could keep referring to vegging and flowering without actually defining them. Flowering, though, should be pretty obvious... To the OP's question, think about the life cycle of an MJ female in the wild. MJ is an annual, meaning it dies every autumn, leaving behind seeds to sprout come next spring and start the cycle again. So, being adapted for that, the plant basically needs to do three things: 1) establish itself, 2) grow big to gain access to light (shade or be shaded, it's a jungle out there) and to prepare for reproduction, then 3) reproduce before it dies. OK, so to do that best it has to maxx out it's adaptation to the environment, specifically the sun. After the seed sprouts in the spring the sun is climbing higher in the sky approaching the summer solstice, and the light frequency turns towards the blue end of the spectrum. So the plant is adapted to "veg out", that is grow new branches and leaves, in this blue-spectrum light. It gets bigger and bigger all summer, adding branches that later will provide additional budsites and adding leaves that catch the sunlight and convert it to usable energy. The leaves also are the plant's main storehouse for nutrients. For reproduction it wants to have as many budsites as possible because the more budsites the better chance that some of them will catch a male's pollen. As autumn approaches, the earth is tilting away from the sun and the sunlight is angling in lower on the horizon, passing through a greater amount of atmosphere, and the light frequency turns toward the red end of the spectrum. And, the daylight hours get shorter. This shift to red-spectrum light and longer dark periods trigger hormones in the plant that shift the plant to sexual maturity -- it's time to reproduce and die in the next couple of months. That's when flowering begins, the actual development of the plant's flowers.
when mj continues to receive blue light but the light cycle is shortened to 12/12 or whatever, can that prevent it from starting the flowering phase as quickly? i use both spectrum lights through veg and was planning to use both spectrum through flowering. I have enough red spectrum lights to use those exclusively for flowering though so recommendations are welcome
to mycroft, thats exactly how i feel lol i knew a little bit but just wanted to get all the info down and reassurance. and thanks alot toastybiz and pungent that was very informative it helped greatly
lmao yo, honestly Im not trying to be a dick. but if ur serious about growing MJ u gotta read a little. Now, if u google growing marijuana or search emule for texts or anything go to the library ANYTHING AT ALL one of the VERY 1st things any worthwhile growing guide will tell u about are the stages of marijuana. Its clear what the diff is between vegetatitive and flowering in all of these guides. Its just frustrating to me when someone asks a question like that. Ima newbie as well but I mean come on!!!! Have u googled? HAve u looked at any grow guides at ALL?? Sorry to rant but I think researching the subject before you take it on should be encouraged here on GC. http://www.marijuanapassion.com/The-Vegetative-Stage-Of-A-Marijuana.html Here is the second link that comes up on google when u search "Marijuana Vegetative State". I skimmed thru it and it seems pretty acurate. Easy as that man just look around a little. Im all for asking questions and Im not gonna say that was a stupid one but maybe a waste of all of our time????? If u want Ill email u plenty of MJ guides I got off emule as well. If u research and read a little it might make YOU feel smarter. And look at that, you WILL be. srry if I sound dickish